Spirit Houses and Woodland Wonders

Bring your family for a spirited day at Hancock Shaker Village. We’re creating a village for the spirit and forest creatures that live along our winding Farm and Forest Trail. We need your help!

Build a Fairy House

10am to 4pm. Collect and use natural materials to build a tiny house for a spirit, fairy or creature of your choosing. And look for a few houses that have already appeared! Farm and Forest Trail—start at the Spirit House tent. Included in admission.

Design Dilemmas? Ask an Architect

10am-noon. Our friends from Hill-Architects will host an advice booth to share tips—or listen to your ideas—about getting started on your spirit house. No question is too small . . . . .Meet at the Spirit House Tent on the Farm and Forest Trail. Included in admission.

Looking Closely: Tiny Tables & Miniature Mirrors

11am-12pm (repeated at 1:30-2:30pm)

Get up close and personal with the unique art form of miniature furniture. Join HSV’s Curator Lesley Herzberg and Rachel Farkas, Curator of Collections at Boston Children’s Museum, as they share examples of Shaker and Victorian dollhouse furniture from both museums. Visitors are invited to look closely and gently handle (with white gloves) these delicate and intriguing objects. In the Gallery in the Visitor Center. Included in admission.

Make a Miniature

1-4pm. Make a miniature chair, table, or bed to put in your spirit house or to take home. In the Discovery Barn. Included in admission.

Parade of the Spirits & Animals

2:30pm. Join our barnyard animals for a parade on the Farm and Forest Trail to see how the Village has grown over the day. Meet at the Round Stone Barn. Included in admission.

Included in admission; kids 12 and younger FREE/ Free to members

Sponsored by Hill-Architects, Engineers, Planners, Inc.

“[The Shakers] were a great curiosity to me; the sphere which they occupied seemed so different that I hardly knew whether they were spirits or mortals” Antoinette Doolittle (Mt. Lebanon)